#For apple instal Multitouch Bluetooth

The trackpad soon appeared in the bluetooth indicator and it was working fine… but only for single touch. When a window on Ubuntu popped up, I entered in 0000 while holding down the power button on the trackpad and it paired after I granted it access. Ubuntu has never liked bluetooth on my laptop, but after a bit of fiddling around, I had something working.įollowing the instructions on the wiki page, I added some stuff to /etc/nf and then turned on the trackpad. I decided to put that to the test, so I fired up Maverick on my Toshiba laptop and before I could start, the first thing for me to fix was bluetooth.

#For apple instal Multitouch install

We reported a couple of weeks ago that the ace Chase Douglas from Canonical had got the Magic Trackpad working in Ubuntu Maverick without having to install anything extra – apparently even up to 10 finger multi touch worked! One thing I was slightly disappointed with is that you can’t use it as a tablet with an input pen, it would be quite a nice surface to sketch on, the “grip” is a good place to grab with your left hand. It looks pretty nice sitting on a desk, definitely reduces the clutter, and I no longer have to worry about mouse pads! One could argue that this can be achieved with a wireless mouse, but it’s just not the same – laser mice require a flat surface to move around to work properly, and it’s not possible to hold it in one hand as a tablet like you can with the magic trackpad.

#For apple instal Multitouch movie

It also works pretty nice for lying on the couch (or in my case, bed) and to control movie playback.

The magic trackpad also has a really nice range, presuming tap to click is turned on, I can quite comfortably lean back in my chair, put my feet up and hold it in my left hand while using it with my right. After a few hours of exclusively using the magic trackpad, I found myself enjoying it so much that I hated going back to my clunky Microsoft keyboard to type, and, at one point, I had to write something using pen and paper – my first instinct was to attempt to somehow do it with the trackpad! It’s definitely not the same as using a touchpad on a a laptop – it’s angled slightly, you can place it anywhere you like and it’s a lot larger than most touchpads on laptops. While it’s not as accurate as a mouse, you soon get over the learning curve and it’s an ample replacement for a desktop mouse. It makes it incredibly lightweight and very enjoyable to use. The first thing I noticed was how natural it feels to use – it’s so nice not having to physically push something around with your entire hand, instead the device stays still and you sort of dance over it with your fingers. This light also flashes when the device is pairing.Īt first I was skeptical – being a mouse user my whole life, and never really liking touchpads on laptops, I didn’t think the trackpad and I would get along so well. When you press it, a green light comes on out of nowhere and then goes off again. There’s only one button, the power button which is on the right. There are no cables, it runs on bluetooth and a couple of AA batteries. It’s also not as large as I expected (turns out it’s quite a comfortable size, but I was expecting more surface area).Īs usual, being an Apple product, the build quality is excellent – it’s mainly constructed out of metal, with a thin 1mm glass surface for the area you touch. The first thing I noticed about it is the incredibly simple design – it literally just looks like a flat piece of metal. I’ve got the trackpad for a couple of days, on loan from one of my lecturers at the design department. I’m not entirely convinced that the magic trackpad spells the end, but this idea of bringing laptop multitouch to the desktop is certainly is an interesting concept.

When it was first released, a lot of people said that this was the beginning of the end of the humble and trusty mouse. Today I got my hands on Apple’s new cool peripheral that everyone is talking about, the Magic Trackpad.